Porsche 911 Gets a Center Steering Wheel, McLaren F1-Style

Photo: Trinity Motorsports

What do you do when you want a center-drive car, but don’t want to spend over a million dollars for a McLaren F1? You build your own.

An anonymous enthusiast came to Shawn Bayliff at Trinity Motorsports with the task of converting a stock sports car to a center-drive system. His thinking was that for the $3 million it’d cost for a McLaren, there must be something more fun to do. The client’s first thought was to alter his Lamborghini Gallardo, but then he reconsidered hacking up something that expensive.

He and the design team at Trinity settled on a Porsche 997. The rear engine made moving the steering and dash simpler, and, Bayliff said, “Those cars are incredibly strong, so our construction didn’t compromise the structural integrity.” Besides that, a center driving position would free up the rear seats, which, in 2+2 stock form, are laughably cramped and useless even for children.

The conversion took over 4,000 hours of work. “Man, everything interacts with everything else,” Bayliff told Wired. “We’ve had it assembled and disassembled about 30 times. It would’ve been easier to build a car from scratch.” But a year after the idea, the “Centro 911” made its debut at the ALMS Petit Le Mans race in Atlanta, Georgia.

Driving in the middle means a different experience from any other road-going car. Besides being safer from side-impact thanks to the extra berth, and providing more even weight distribution, the center driving position is a blast. It’s something like getting in an F1 car, but getting to pass traffic.

The Centro 911 ended up with one advantage over the McLaren. Bayliff installed an FIA seat slider that moves the driver’s seat from the middle, over to the door, so there’s no awkward exit after approaching the valet.

Bayliff and his crew are working on a coupe version of the car with a six-speed standard tranny instead of the Porsche PDK setup in the Centro. They’ll be finishing it up in the next 45 days. “That one will be for the track,” Bayliff said.